Justice in Stormwind City - by four Evil Guilds

Scroll down to the end of this post for a brief resource of punishments, and what to do if you've been captured or have captured a criminal.

Disclaimer: whenever we say 'criminal' in the context of this thread, we mean 'Criminal who is a member of our guilds', other criminals are welcome to use the ideas and arrangements made here but should in no way feel forced to.

Thugs, Bandits and Cultists are on the receiving end of the Justice System, and are target of punishments. Proper punishment leaves both the criminal and the victim OOCly content, whereas a poor punishment causes only drama. It takes good, significant penalties to make criminal RP feel truly satisfactory and we recognize that punishment is as much part of our RP as actually causing mischief, and that it should be on our OOC agenda as guild leaders and guild officers. We came together with the Forlorn Cartel, Hand of Nightmares, Ravenholdt Sanctuary and the Dark Sphere and discussed among each other how we can best provide our members with enjoyable punishments, and our victims with a sense of justice and a sweet taste of revenge.

Trials are RP events, not mandatory bores

Trials are Role-playing events, and they are supposed to be fun. Trials are fun when dealing with evil masterminds who do their crimes through others, corrupt officials who misuse their position and the like. Most people would simply like to get their punishment and not wait half a week for a trial. We ask this to be allowed. When our members get captured, they should have an option to just contact their captors and say that they would like to get a punishment and be done with it, instead of having a fully-fledged trial. As leaders and officers of our guilds we will gladly take our time to discuss with our members, their victims and their captors a most suiting punishment and help implement it in this case. As said, whenever one of our members is captured and the captors/victims cannot find a satisfying punishment on their own, they should contact the guild leader or officer and we will do our best to aid.

Compulsory Military Service

We've discussed with the Blazing Shields, who have organized open training events, if they would be willing to accommodate our members who get Compulsory Military Service as their punishment. They said yes! This will include punishments like joining the Shields on military operations, doing training with them, helping them on patrols and guard-duty as a lowly private with that loud-mouthed Sarge bossing you around. This would also include helping the Shields care for the other prisoners. Please mind, this is a possible punishment, so if you think it doesn’t fit your character, it’s up to you to not pick one of those.

1) Military exercise. They say that discipline has positive effect on people. Some right-minded nobles in Stormwind decided to put that to a test! Military exercise is usually given as a punishment in addition to fines, lashes and confinement and puts the convict in the line before a loud-mouthed and usually unpleasant drill-sergeant. After a few days of push-ups, hitting the dummy, parading, patrolling, marching, making the lines and saluting, the criminal is supposed to become a different person. Used for small crimes, especially those associated with improper conduct. Never used for assault.
2) Guard Duty. Take a former criminal, shove him into uniform; put a disciplinary, angry officer in charge and theory says that this criminal can do Good. Convicts are sorted into squads, put under command of legitimate veteran-officer and sent to patrol the city or guard an area. In this way they can repay the society for the disorder they’ve caused….by creating order!
3) Desk&Prison Duty. Prisoners are weird folk, thinking they have rights and neglecting their duties. Most free-born Stormwinders simply can’t cope with being in prison and are driven to such ghastly trespasses as insulting the guards, calling for lawyers, threatening to whine to the council or –Light forbid!—escaping. Some are assigned to provide care and conversation for their former inmates, aiding the guards in running the prison. Others who display proper behavior may help the guards with paper-work or other small errands inside the Command Center.

Rest and Rehabilitation

We've talked to the Disciples of Light if they are ready to help organize punishments in and around the Cathedral. They will gladly assist us with handing out small devotional errands to the criminals, like cleaning up in the cathedral, helping take care of the sick. Most importantly, Disciples are willing to offer 'therapy' to help bring minor cultists back to the Light and small-time thugs back into the society. Again, this is but one of possible punishments, and if they don’t fit your character – you are not forced to do those.

4) Therapy. Some idealistic members of the clergy believe that there are no inherently evil people, most are simply misunderstood; driven to crime by external factors, bad childhood, rapid socio-political change and unfortunate position of the planets and the stars. Therapy is meant to assist such poor lost sheep find their way back in society, abandon their evil tendencies, perhaps reconcile with their victim and most defiantly convert to the Holy Light. Usable for all criminals as additional punishment, but especially for minor cultists and demon-worshippers.

5) Devotional Errands. The Cathedral doesn’t run itself! Those golden chandeliers need a good polish to remain shiny, that blue carpet needs an occasional dusting from all the druid-cats rolling on it daily. Cathedral square needs a clean-up from all the ghouls losing their body parts. Sick ones in the infirmary need their chicken-soup before it gets cold. This is a terrible punishment indeed, to be cleaning up and running errands inside the Cathedral while the entire City is watching you sweat.

We have the ways to make you talk…

We’ve contacted Jayse or Stormwind Intelligence, and he is willing to provide a room with a table, two chairs, an ashtray and a flickering lamp in which the criminal will undergo an experience of a lifetime. Again, this will only be used when it makes sense and if the criminal agrees to it; Jayse on his end agreed to let people go after a while even if they’ve clearly not spilled ALL the beans.

Prison Sentence

Prison sentence used to be boring. Blazing Shields have changed that! And we will gladly help them out into making the most out of it. Now our members who are captured can get an 'authentic' prison experience, where their trespasses and disrespect get them a mistreatment form the guards. Alternatively, we can use 'regular reports' as a form of punishment. In this instance, a criminal has to report daily to the command center and tell what he did, where he has been and so forth.

Old punishments don't go away!

Old punishments such as lashings, public humiliations and fines of course do not go away. They are still available if the criminal or other sides in the question are up for it. At all times the criminal, the victim and the captors may find out their own fun punishment and implement it on their own. The meaning of this topic was to provide a resource and a list of what has already been arranged.

All the support we need...

We've sorted everything with the Disciples of Light, Blazing Shields, SI:7 and our members and all sides are content with this project. We are well-capable of handing it on our own. However, we ask the Council and anybody else not to make the job of the guards any harder than it is. Do not go around saying OOCly that they have 'no right to sentence people, that is something the judges do!' or anything of the sort. ICly, Let us just say that above regulations have been passed down and approved by the Powers Above, and there is nothing a humble citizen can do aside from protest and disgust.

Improvements from our side

We know that many people from our guilds have been known for acting out of place, shaking punishments off and escaping from jail within five minutes. Some guilds far, far less so than others. It is our intention to change that, and we shall do our best to change our own attitudes towards punishments, as well as attitudes of our guild members. We will encourage people to get captured when it makes sense, instead of pulling off a cheap escape for instance. We will also warn them that some crimes are just so terrible, that if they commit them they should be ready to face the consequences – namely that no fun punishment exists. This will include for instance breaking from jail, escaping during ‘fun’ punishments, attacking whoever is guiding your ‘fun’ punishment.

Pointing out…

Said it in the post, but pointing it out. Punishments listed here are not mandatory for all; they are not the ONLY punishments either. They are a pre-arranged default-kit of punishments you are welcome to make use of. If for instance you want to clean the streets or dredge the canals as a punishment for your character, and know somebody who can ICly arrange it for you – go ahead and make your own, custom-made thing. Only thing that –truly- matters is that the Criminal, the Victim(s) and the Captor(s) are content with it OOCly. At least, if everything else fails, a good beating for the Criminal, leaving him incapable of committing crimes for 2-3 days is a swift and reasonable penalty.

Conclusion

Forlorn Cartel, Ravenholdt Sanctuary, Hand of Nightmares and the Dark Sphere have come together and realized that punishments and penalties are part our RP; so we put arranging fun penalties for our members on our OOC agenda as leaders and officers of our guilds. First of all, we will assist finding a proper punishment with the victims and captors if the need arises, and wish that those who rather not wait for the trial can get their punishment swiftly from the guards without too much ‘bureaucracy. Again, we will gladly assist the guards in finding proper punishments. We are also taking steps to make sure our members are more willing to get captured and are ready to take their punishment. Our goal is to make an IC punishment for IC crimes and OOC reward – awesome RP experience.

OOC Resource

I have captured a criminal! Yay! What next...?
Please escort the criminal to a place of detention where he can actually receive some role-play while waiting. Good idea would be the Command Center, Cathedral Catacombs is second best. Anything else only with OOC agreement of the Criminal.

I got him shackled up and all. Am I done yet?
Technically yes. If you feel very charitable, you should ask the criminal OOCly if he wants to stand trial or just get his punishment right away, and try to get in OOC contact with the victim should he choose for the latter. Then you discuss OOCly what punishment is most suiting and carry it out. Remember, that this is but the OOC part - everything still needs to be RPed properly!

Criminal is unco-operative! What do I do?
Check his guild-tag and contact the leader/officer of his guild. We are there to help in those instances and will do our best to ensure a fair punishment which (hopefully) leaves both sides satisfied.

I've been captured, chained up and left to rot! Somebody help me!
First of all decide for yourself if you want a trial or a punishment right away. If you want a trial, either arrange it yourself or contact somebody who can do it for you. If you want just to be punished, contact your victim and your captors OOCly and discuss a proper punishment. If there is trouble and you cannot come to an agreement, ask your guild leader or officer for help. This is only OOC part, so you still have to RP it all out of course.

List of Punishments
This is a brief list of punishments we've pre-arranged, or simply punishments we recommend.

-Disciplining by the guards (contact Blazing Shields)
-Compulsary Guard Duty (contact Blazing Shields)
-Aiding in the Command Center (contact Blazing Shields)
-Prison Sentence with RP (contact Blazing Shields)
-Taps on your character (contact a guard or a guard-guild)
-Therapy (Contact the Disciples of Light)
-Errands at the Cathedral (Contact the Disciples of Light)
-Tough Interrogation (Contact Jayse)

-Flogging/Lashing/Humiliation/Beating/Stoning (Contact your captors and see if they can arrange it, or find somebody else)
-Civil Service, like cleaning the streets (Contact your captors and see if they can arrange it, or find somebody else)

Remember! Those are but suggestions, feel free to come up with your own stuff.

Would it make sense to create an custom channel for both guards and criminals to join and use when they need to coordinate something OOCly?

It would make sense, had it not been for an overwhelming group of people already having their channels full . But its something worth considering at least, thanks for suggestion!

Priorities, priorities.

To be on topic this kind of bugged me when I played Alliance. The bad guys got away with everything, and for some reason guards could spot a cultist from miles afar. Kudos for pinning down some consequences.

Looking good indeed guys. Good work, as stated don't be shy to get in touch for an SI:7 interrogation punishment on the fly. I'm usualy more then happy/free to accommodate. Either myself or... other capable nameless figures..

I will agree to everything that makes sense IC ('Cept death) as i've allways done, for example if i am suspected as a big time criminal then i can automatically go with the interrogation. Not promisin' i'll talk though.

But what gives an good reason IC/OOC to not escape during you're guard patrolling duty? For those big ganglords whose IC rank is just too valuable to be ignored IC, why shouldn't they're subordinates try to free them?

Raviran wrote:
But what gives an good reason IC/OOC to not escape during you're guard patrolling duty? For those big ganglords whose IC rank is just too valuable to be ignored IC, why shouldn't they're subordinates try to free them?

Nothing. As long as you realize that your character is about to do something Very Bad ICly, and stop to think about it for a moment. Do you want something like that? If you accept the consequences - go ahead! If you don't want the consequences - you should reconsider.

"We will also warn them that some crimes are just so terrible, that if they commit them they should be ready to face the consequences – namely that no fun punishment exists." thats what written in the post. We just warn our members, but the choise is theirs.

This looks absolutely brilliant. Well done everyone who got involved with this

I'd assume these criminals would be supervised with armed guards so thats an IC reason not to try and free them

Well my head is wanted allready big time so i'll take my chances! But if i get caught i will definetly go through Jayse's interrogation, most realistic / funniest thin' to be done. (For me atleast)

I'd like to clean the cathedral for some reason

I have a mental image of Sophyra on a therapy.

Priest: So, Sophyra...you've seduced three men and clawed and chewed them to death while they were bewitched.
*Sophyra stares blankly infront of her*
P: Do you want to talk about it, Sophyra?

*puts on fake dwarf beard*
"Why don't you tell me about your mother?"

The Compulsory Military Service thing is a brilliant idea, as the punishment does not end when you are released.
Last time Jimble got this as punishment, upon returning to the gang, the fellow guildies killed my chicken and put me into a barrel and threw me into the cannals. But what's the worst, I was forced to shave my moustache!

Well the good news is that we ate chicken nuggets that night.....!

Sophyra wrote:I have a mental image of Sophyra on a therapy.

Priest: So, Sophyra...you've seduced three men and clawed and chewed them to death while they were bewitched.
*Sophyra stares blankly infront of her*
P: Do you want to talk about it, Sophyra?

She's a cannibal? Not so sure..If I'll go to the Red Eclipse again..I mean seduction sure...but.....cannibalism....think I'll pass on that one o.O

We're all cannibals inside. You saw what I did to Axio.

*Remembers the mafia meeting of all bosses.*

I think these ideas are inspired. Your words on how people do not want to wait for a trial, I suppose if we had a few judge alts who could be summoned swiftly to the Command Centre, if they confess their guilt the judge can carry out a sentence there and then.

If somebody wants to take the bother and run around judging people, they may go ahead. Can just work with OOC agreements and available guards otherwise. Although I must admit the idea of running around and sentencing people sounds somewhat appealing..hmm...

Sophyra wrote:If somebody wants to take the bother and run around judging people, they may go ahead. Can just work with OOC agreements and available guards otherwise. Although I must admit the idea of running around and sentencing people sounds somewhat appealing..hmm...

Haha, doesn't it?

When the justice system was brought into question I offered my two characters (who had little background) to act as a Judge and a Lawyer if either were lacking. So as I said, if anyone is ever stuck for one, it's just a case of whispering me. Then evidence + prisinor + judge = Profit.

Just offer your services, I will pin them on the front page somewhere (with names of chars you might be contacted on) should anybody need a judge/lawyer.

Sophyra wrote:Just offer your services, I will pin them on the front page somewhere (with names of chars you might be contacted on) should anybody need a judge/lawyer.

Algaidos - Judge
Iladora - Lawyer

I mean, the chars you can be contacted on I doubt you are on any of those two as often as you are on Vezullia and Anaei? And I ask in case you have more active chars than V and A

Sophyra wrote:I mean, the chars you can be contacted on I doubt you are on any of those two as often as you are on Vezullia and Anaei? And I ask in case you have more active chars than V and A

Oh lordy, lordy I do apologise. You are right that was silly. xD

I can usually be contacted on Anaei or Iladora/Vezullia.